For conferring on me the honor as the chair of this Eid conference, I offer my gratitude to the Bengal Muslim Literary Society (Bongio Musalman Shahitto Shomiti). Let me first offer you my Eid greetings. Eid is the celebration of joy and sacrifice.
Today, this is a poetry conference. Poets and writers have gathered here. Poets, writers, musicians are messengers who bring to people the message from the realm of joy and beauty. That’s why they are the pride of human civilization. The human thirst for joy and beauty is eternal.
Just as a person feels hunger for food, so he does feel thirst for beauty…The poets are there to quench the thirst of the non-poets. The demand for the beauty dimension of life co-exists with the ordinary needs of people’s life. One day I observed a person returning from the market, holding a hen in one hand and some Tuberose (Rajanigandha) flowers in the other. I complimented him saying, "I have never seen such a combination of Fair and Fowl (foul) together!"
The duty of delivering the cup of beauty-ambrosia is on the shoulders of poets and writers. Lot of hardship and suffering, the writers face in this path, but they must not be afraid. Through growing trees and paddy (rice), people turn acres and acres into plantations, but how many undertake cultivation of roses? It is even more unfortunate that the thirst for the beauty is so scanty among the educated ones of this land.
It’s no wonder that the poet-writers of this land have to struggle so much in their life. But let’s not despair. The blows of pain must be welcomed with the visits of joy. The life and works of the poets and writers are like Lotus. Each of its petals has bloomed because of being stricken with so much pain and suffering.
I vividly remember my great feeling and realization of this one day in life. My son passed away. My heart was broken by the deep sadness at this loss. That day, I found Hasna-Hena (a flower) blooming in my house. I smelled the fragrance of that Hasna-Hena to my heart’s delight. That’s the way to enjoy life – that’s living a full life.
I have cherished the experience of this very kind of life. My poetry and music have emanated from my life’s experiences. I sang with the rhythm of life – these are the expressions of that rhythm. Whether my poetry and music are great or mediocre, I don’t know. But I want to state emphatically – I have lived my life fully. I have never dreaded pain or suffering. I have dived into the ocean waves of life.
I was the first in my class. The headmaster had great hope that I would bring more honor to the school, but the world war of Europe came along. One day I saw people going to war. I also joined a platoon. I went to Chattogram, saw the sea, and I thoroughly enjoyed my life by diving into it. One day a policeman aimed his pistol at my forehead, while standing right in front of me, and said, "I can kill you." I exclaimed: "Friend! Indeed, I have been searching for death all along…”
(Excerpts from ‘Shwadhin-Chittotar Jagoron’, given in 1940 in Calcutta Eid gathering of Bongio Musalman Shahitto Shomiti, Nazrul Rochonaboli, 1996)
